A Study on Qur？ān Manuscripts in the Vatican Library in terms of Physical and Content Features

The history of the Qur？ānic text begins with the time of its revelation. The research on Qur？ānic manuscripts is one of the main fields of textual studies of the Qur？ān. There have been many works done by both Muslim and Western scholars. Many museums and libraries around the world hold Qur？ān manuscripts. Each manuscript has its own characteristics such as orthography, calligraphy, decoration, and binding, number of the pages and the lines, and dating. This article deals with 110 Qur？ān manuscripts found in the Vatican Library (Biblioteca Apostalica Vaticana) at the Vaticani arabi, Borgiani arabi,Barberiniani orientaliand RossianiCollections. The dates of these Qur？ān manuscripts vary from I/VII(?) and XIII/XIX centuries. The article aims to identify the features of Qur？ānic writing by studying chronologically some basic physical-content descriptions and characteristics of these manuscripts. It also examines the different names of the sūrahs and the knowledge on Meccan or Medinan sūrahs presented on the sūrah headings of manuscripts. Summary: Each Qur？ān manuscript has its own characteristics. These features present significant insights into the field of history of Qur？ānic text. A manuscript becomes a source for the history of writing mu？？afin terms of physical and content features such as calligraphy, ink colors, binding, and explanations found in katabapage, the sūrah headings which contain the names of sūrahs, Meccan-Medinan knowledge, the numbers of āyahs, and the signs for juz？, ？ashr, and ？izb. The research on the names of sūrahs, Meccan-Medinan knowledge, and the number of āyahs contributes to the ？ulūm al-Qur？ānstudies as well. This article examines 110 Qur？ān manuscripts located in the Vatican Library in the Vaticani arabi(73 MSS), Borgiani arabi (25 MSS),Barberiniani orientali(11 MSS), and Rossiani(2 MSS) Collections. Each manuscript is individually studied. However, due to the limitation of the article, I include only some basic and significant physical and content features of these manuscripts. The catalogues prepared by Giorgio Levi della Vida (1886-1967) and Carlo Alberto Anzuini are consulted for this study. I also study the sūrah headings in Qur？ān manuscripts which contain the names of sūrahs and Meccan-Medinan knowledge. The most used calligraphy types of these manuscripts coming from different geographies are maghribī(19 MSS) and nasikh-Ottoman (66 MSS). The basic features of maghribīMSS as follows: The text is written dark brown, vowel signs in dark red, shaddaand jazmin blue, and hamzain orange ink (VI-VII/XII-XIII centuries). The